Debate over a major school reform bill stalled late Friday night because of a “point of order” called on the legislation – and House leaders could not quickly resolve allegations that HB 400 violated House rules as it moved through the process.

The bill, which would allow teacher furloughs, larger class sizes and teacher pay cuts, got knocked down last week because of a procedural defect. It’s rare for the same bill to get sidetracked twice. But teacher groups and their allies loath the legislation – and lawmakers friendly to their cause are doing everything they can to derail it.

Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio

Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, stopped debate on the school reform bill – just as he did earlier in the evening during debate on the immigration/sanctuary cities bill and just as he did on Thursday when he found a legislative defect on a “loser pays” tort reform bill.

Gov. Rick Perry immediately declared the tort reform issue an emergency, which will allow legislators to expedite debate once the procedural flaw is fixed. Perry earlier the session designated the sanctuary cities bill an emergency issue.

Martinez Fischer might be putting a bull’s eye on his back for the governor to aim at, but the veteran legislator doesn’t see it that way.

“I would call it doing everything I can within my power to represent the constituents fo San Antonio, and anytime anybody wants to use race as an issue to polarize our state by bringing a racial profile bill like HB 12 (the sanctuary cities bill), they will have to run me over to pass that,” said Martinez Fischer, also chairman of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus. “And I will find every rule that I can find.”

The 150 member state House includes a super majority of 101 Republicans.

“We all abide by the same rule book,” Martinez Fischer said. “When you represent your constituents and you do what’s in the best interest of your district, you can’t worry about reprisals (from the governor).”

Martinez Fischer characterized his tactics as part of public service.

“The best service I can give the public is to stop bad legislation from destroying our communities,” he said.

The immigration/sanctuary cities bill will likely return to the House floor in the coming days.

“That’s the way this place is. I can’t blame people for doing what they do or what they say,” he said.

He objected to Eissler’s bill because the committee minutes reflect that Rep. Todd Smith, R- Euless, offered a committee substitute for the bill, but the bill printing says it was offered by Rep. Jimmy Don Aycock, R-Killeen.

“So you either have a committee meeting problem, or you have a printing problem,” Martinez Fischer said.

“But – you don’t have a chairman problem,” he said within earshot of Eissler.

The San Antonio legislator told Eissler he could have avoided the problem had only he “put in his two cents” and influenced House Speaker Joe Straus to make Martinez Fischer a chairman. Eissler and Straus are close allies.

“I’d be fixing all these bad bills,” Martinez Fischer said.

“That’s why I love Trey,” Eissler responded.

Lawmakers spend a couple of hours debating Eissler’s school reform bill, which could result in teacher furloughs, teacher pay cuts and larger class sizes in response to massive budget cuts.

Some lawmakers argued loud and passionately against a move they clearly see as the “downsizing and dumbing down” of public education in Texas.

But Eisslerdefended HB 400 as a way to “allow our schools to operate more efficiently.” It also would free school districts from a variety of unfunded mandates.

Current law does not allow school districts to reduce teacher pay or furlough them. They can only fire them, which budget cuts would guarantee.

“This is a ‘save teachers job’ bill,” Eissler told his colleagues. “And don’t forget that.”
House and Senate Republicans have approved budget versions that could cut public education funding by more than $8 billion from discretionary grants and the basic school finance system.

“The reality is we have to downsize the education system in the state of Texas because we are electing not to pay the tab,” Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, complained.

And that’s because the state’s GOP leadership refuses to pull more money out of the state’s $9.4 billion rainy day fund, he said.

Turner complained the bill would “downsize and dumb down the education system in the state of Texas.”

Eissler disagreed with the assertion.

But Turner immediately responded: “The proof is in the pudding.”

School boards and administrators support the measure because of the flexibility it gives them. But teacher groups vigorously oppose it.

The existing cap of 22 students per elementary school classroom would go to a district wide average of 22 under the legislation. A hard cap of 25 students would apply per elementary school classroom. The 22-to-1 ratio remains a legacy of the Ross Perot commission and the 1984 landmark HB 72 legislation.

Eissler, however, accepted an amendment offered by Rep. Mark Strama, D-Austin, that would require school district to notify parents if they exceed the 22-1 cap. It also reinstates the existing cap beginning with the 2014 school year.

An effort to liberate school districts from mandates included bill amendments that would no longer require schools to recycle – or to test students’ physical fitness.